abstract

Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV) operate independently of human control. The more sophisticated types of AUV are able to make their own mission-conformal decisions including appropriate action in unforeseen situations. The latest AUV development from ATLAS ELEKTRONIK is the SeaWolf, at present in the advanced development stage, is such a sophisticated type of AUV and will be shortly introduced into the market. The SeaWolf’s mission spectrum extends from the inspection of 2- and 3-D underwater facilities, maritime security in the underwater domain and to applications for maritime science. The vehicle belongs to the lower weight class of AUVs, has a large payload capacity and a endurance of several hours with a speed up to 8 kts. It is able to hover and has a very good manoeuvrability, due to its 5 propulsors. The SeaWolf can also be equipped with a fiberoptic cable, length of up to some kilometres, for broad band on-line data transmission. The Seawolf AUV, with its unique combination of power and manoeuvrability, will be able to execute a comprehensive variety of inspection, surveillance and reconnaissance tasks, including in high current environments and covering extremely complex structures. As well, SEAWOLF is able to detect and classify anomalies without human support. Such anomolies can be so handled even in areas of extensive marine growth such as mussels and barnacles, and in regions of poor visibility. To meet these demanding performance challenges, the SeaWolf is equipped with: • a multi-sensor package, • an efficient image processing software, • a precise geographic long range navigation system, • a very precise short range navigation system relative to the object, which guides the vehicle constantly in each axis from the object to be inspected ensuring a 100% coverage of the object’s surface. The SeaWolf is also able to execute the inspection from an existing CAD data from the target object. If such data are not available, SeaWolf will figure out the data file by itself on the basic of the actual inspection result. This paper presents the current AUV system ATLAS SeaWolf, describing the configuration and performance including an overview of potential applications and discusses the planned future developments.

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